


Small Dreams

by bloodandcream



Series: The more the merrier [46]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Road Trips, runaways - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 03:06:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5989855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodandcream/pseuds/bloodandcream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claire had big dreams. She wasn’t entirely sure what those dreams were, but they were big. She knew they involved the beat up old Chrysler van she bought when she was seventeen with her meager part time Walmart job savings. They involved the open road and were vaguely California shaped, somewhere sunny and happy. Mostly, her dreams were anywhere but Pontiac, Illinois.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Dreams

Claire had big dreams. She wasn’t entirely sure what those dreams were, but they were big. She knew they involved the beat up old Chrysler van she bought when she was seventeen with her meager part time Walmart job savings. They involved the open road and were vaguely California shaped, somewhere sunny and happy. Mostly, her dreams were anywhere but Pontiac, Illinois.

Pontiac hadn’t been too good to her since the car crash when she was thirteen that took her mom and dad. With no relatives to take her in, she’d been bouncing around between foster homes since then. They didn’t really care about her. She was another mouth to feed. Another troubled youth caught stealing from the convenience store, smoking behind the bleachers. Another kid no one expected to go anywhere, another pretty blond girl they all thought would drop out of high school when she got pregnant.

They were all wrong about her. She dropped out of high school the day she turned eighteen and tossed what few belongings she had into the back of her van. With the back seats ripped out, there was room for an air mattress, a pile of clothes, a tote of food, a box of books. It wasn’t much, but it was hers. She didn’t want to be ignored anymore, to be a burden anymore.

It wasn’t a very pretty day when she struck out on her own. Winter slush gray in the street gutters, the sky cloudy and dark, all the trees bare. Claire still rolled down the window, just a crack, to feel the sting of the wind on her cheeks as she cranked the radio waiting for a good song to come on.

-

I-80 West was almost a straight shot over to California from Illinois. Claire had an atlas spread on the passenger seat beside her and all her savings in cash stowed in a bag duct taped to the seat under her. The sights weren’t much for late winter but at least the weather was kind of mild and she hadn’t run through any snow storms yet. Parking at gas stops, rest stations, the side of the road, she slept in her van at night. Although she wanted to go West, she mostly didn’t want to be in Pontiac anymore, and after a day of driving she felt that need to fly down the road easing as she took a few stops for fun, followed signs for attractions instead of strictly West.

Getting a little lost, Claire ended up on 29 North, but it would hit 90 West around Sioux Falls and she figured she’d take that turn when she got there. It was only her third day out when she saw a dark haired girl on the side of the road with a back pack and her thumb stuck out. Her jeans were soaked wet at the ragged hems, a thick coat on over layers of shirts and she had a wary look on her face when Claire stopped next to her and threw the door open. She looked kind of mean, but then, a lot of people thought Claire looked kind of mean too.

“Hey, need a ride?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going?”

“I just want to get away from here.”

“I’m going West. California. I think, I don’t really have plans.”

The girl pulled her back pack off and stepped up into the high van as Claire folded up her atlas and set it on the dash. Holding her bag on her lap as she closed the door, the hitch hiker said, “Sure. I have a little cash, I can help with gas but it’s not much. “

“Cool. I’m Claire.”

“Alex.”

Pulling off the gravel shoulder, Claire turned the heat up when she noticed Alex shivering and they sat in awkward non-conversation listening to the radio for a stretch of road. When the car was almost too hot for Claire, sleeves of her shirt rolled up, Alex finally took off her coat.

“You can toss that in the back.”

Claire didn’t mean to stare, kept her eyes on the road, but she snuck a few glances and saw deep purple bruises on Alex’s wrists as she shifted, adjusted her clothes. She was quiet, guarded.

Claire asked, “Are you in trouble?”

Alex pulled the sleeves of her shirt down agitatedly, “I don’t think they’ll come after me.”

“It’s all right, we’ll put some distance down before we stop.”

-

South Dakota was all flat plains, farms and fields stretching as far as the horizon down the straight uneventful road. After Claire shared cold canned ravioli with Alex and let her sleep curled up in the front seat on her own, Alex had seemed to thaw a little. Claire was happy to hand over the wheel and let Alex drive, spend time in the passenger seat pouring over the atlas and the handful of local maps each state had at rest stops that that detailed roadside attractions.

They took detours and dallied in small towns spending hours in warm coffee shops with fresh baked muffins. Claire didn’t even mind showering with a wash cloth and a bar of soap in gas station or 24 hr diner restrooms, late at night when there was no one else around and the cashiers didn’t even give a stink eye for her and Alex taking up the space for the cost of a cup of coffee.

The scenery was still barren, dusted with snow, and a last fierce storm blocked them in somewhere in Wyoming, just past the border. Alex had a good hand for theft, apparently, snagging a few wallets at truck stops and taking the cash before dropping them out the window or swiping food. Together they had enough to wait out a few nights at a shitty motel where they could stretch out on a bed and take hot showers.

Neither of them talked much about their pasts, and that was just fine. They talked about where they were going, where they might end up.

-

They were snowed in at that motel for three nights, going stir crazy after days on the road when the snow was too high to even shove the door open to the outside world. But on the fourth day the drifts were low enough to wade through and the two of them decided to try the bar across the street. Claire didn’t have a fake ID, she didn’t even know how old Alex was, but no one asked them at the door.

Shooting pool was a welcome distraction and Claire was tempted to try her hand at earning a little cash with it, when a curly haired girl at the bar threw a punch. It didn’t turn too ugly, after the bar tender pulled the red faced guy she’d punched back and hustled him out the door. But people where whispering and the girl tipped back the beer she’d been nursing like she was ready to leave. Claire was curious. The brunette was all alone, looking like this was the bar she picked ‘cause they didn’t check ID’s.

Alex shrugged and said ‘Sure’ when Claire suggested they go over.

Sidling up next to her as she put the empty beer down, Claire asked, “You leaving?”

She scowled at Claire, “Yeah. And?”

“My friend and I are just passing through,”

Alex mumbled a ‘Hey’ over her shoulder.

“And we had to stop in the storm. There anything fun to do around here?”

The girl rolled her eyes, “I wouldn’t know. I’m not from around here.”

“Where are you going?”

“No where, apparently. I got stranded.”

Alex leaned in to speak in the loud bar, she had a soft voice, “We could get some beer from the convenience store down the road, play cards at our motel.”

Looking between the two of them, the girl asked, “You staying across the road too?”

“Yeah.”

Rolling her eyes and looking very put upon – but there was just a hint of a smile there – she hopped off the stool. “Why not.”

-

Her name was Krissy. Another run away, troubled youth, she said nobody really forgot about her cause nobody really cared about her to start with. But she was as quick witted and bitterly sarcastic as Claire and Alex were, fit right in over a pack of cards and shared new stories with them, different plans. There was a knife in her boots when she took them off at the door. After drinking together until four am, Claire was almost sad that Krissy went back to her room, down three doors. But Alex curled over on her own bed in the dark and asked quietly, “Do you think she’d come with us?”

It was impulsive, but so was Claire’s life and so was her decision to pick Alex up. She’d be bored out of her mind without the company though, even if Alex knew way too many weird things about cow’s digestive systems. So in the morning when they were tossing their bags back in the van and Krissy came around again, only a back pack on her shoulder, and said “I don’t know about California, but if you’ve got room…”; they piled up their bags to make space in the back.

-

Climbing up the mountains of Western Montana, the van started to sputter and squeal. Claire had no idea what was wrong with it. Alex stayed huddled in the warmth of the van while Krissy tried poking around in it to find out. Claire didn’t think she actually knew what she was doing, but she was stubborn enough to try. They decided to let the car rest a day and then just keep going.

Barely into Butte, dusk settling with an inky blue sky and a biting cold wind, the van finally decided to die in the middle of the road. The closest parking lot was a doughnut shop, which all three girls pushed the van into. Exhausted, and grouchy about the set back, they huddled close in the back of the van and slept.

The morning came bright, dew on the inside of the windows, but the sun was warm at least. All three sat shoulder to shoulder with their feet hanging out the back of the van, hatchback lifted up, passing a half full jar of peanut butter around for breakfast. Greasy haired, clothes dirty, they agreed it was probably best to stop a few days and pool together what little they had left for a motel room, wash their clothes in the bath tub. But they had to find a place first, long stretch of cracked asphalt road offering boarded up store fronts and a few small business, side streets lined with houses.

A car pulled in to the parking lot, deciding to park a few spaces down from their van. Figured that out of all the closed shops around here they’d shoved their van into a place that was actually still running. They could push it down the road to an empty lot if the store owner really wanted.

A blond lady in a puffy jacket stepped towards them with a cheerful smile on. “We’re not quite open yet.”

Krissy had her mouth full of peanut butter.

Claire hopped off the bumper. “Sorry, our van broke down right in front of you and we just pushed it into the lot. Do you need us to move?”

Concern creased the other’s brow, “How long you girls been stranded here? Is someone coming to give you a ride?”

Claire shrugged, “Overnight. We’ll be moving on when we get it fixed up. If we get it fixed up.”

The woman frowned, “You slept in the van overnight? It’s too cold in these parts to be doing that, even early spring. My gosh, doncha have sense in your heads. Come on inside I’ll get you some hot coffee okay. Name’s Donna. And we have the best donuts in all Butte here, doncha know, you’ll have to stay while I get the morning batch started. “

Alex was still sitting in the back of the van. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Maybe not but I don’t mind at all. Come on, then.”

-

Almost anything was better than a spoon of peanut butter for breakfast, but Donna might have been right about having the best donuts in Butte. She was also scarily nice, too chipper for the crack of dawn and bouncing on her feet as she swept the store. Alex, Krissy and Claire commandeered the bathroom to wash their hair in the sink, and Donna gave them clean dish towels to wring it out.

Claire wasn’t the kind of person that was happy to accept anything from anyone else. But they were all tired and achy from the road, permanent sniffles settled in from the chill, funds running low and the van broke down. So when Donna mentioned that her girlfriend, Jody, ran a hardware store down the way and always hired a few hands at the start of spring for the season, they decided to maybe put in applications. A month wouldn’t be too bad, not really a set back at all to replete their funds and rest.

Only, a month rolled into a second and they decided to rent an apartment instead of the weekly pay inn, all three of them piling onto a queen sized mattress in a one room efficiency. And Claire didn’t learn to accept so much as was bullied into weekly dinners at Jody and Donna, with Alex and Krissy. Jody said they needed to put on more muscle to haul bags of fertilizer all summer. Donna’s obvious cheer at foisting food on all of them said something else.

Butte wasn’t much of a town to look at it, it wasn’t sunny and it wasn’t scenic. It wasn’t the big and unshaped dream that a young girl clung to just to have a reason to leave. It wasn’t anywhere she thought she’d end up, but then, she wasn’t really going somewhere in particular. There was something in Butte she needed, and it wasn’t a place or a thing.

It was Alex’s shy affection that ran deep and loyal. It was Krissy’s fierce protectiveness that made them feel safe. It was the warmth and kindness Jody and Donna showed when all they had was a broken down van and a jar of peanut butter. Small things. People. A family of sorts. Love, maybe. So even if it was just this small town and their small apartment, Claire was glad to call these things her small dreams.


End file.
